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[ad_1] Protecting kids from harmful social media How to protect kids and teens from the harmful effects of social media 05:22 U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is calling for stronger guidelines for social media use among children and teens, pointing to a growing body of research that the platforms may pose what he described as a "profound risk" to young people's mental health. In a report issued on Tuesday, Murthy urged technology companies and lawmakers to take "immediate action" by formulating policies to protect young people from "addictive apps and extreme and inappropriate content"

[ad_1] Anyone in the U.S. who used Facebook in the last 16 years can now collect a piece of a $725 million settlement by parent company Meta tied to privacy violations, as long as they fill out a claim within the next two weeks. The settlement stems from multiple lawsuits that were brought against Facebook by users who claimed that the company improperly shared their information with third-party sources such as advertisers and data brokers. The litigation began after Facebook was embroiled in a privacy scandal in 2018 with Cambridge Analytica, which  scraped user data from the site as part of an effort to profile voters. Meta denied any liability or wrongdoing under the settlement, according to the recently created class-action website, set up to pay out money to the social network's users.  However, the agreement means that U.S. residents who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, can file a monetary claim as long as t

[ad_1] Washington — Kati Morton was a reluctant adopter of YouTube. A therapist working toward her license in California, it was her then-boyfriend, now-husband, who first suggested that Morton explore posting videos on the platform as a way to disseminate mental health information. The year was 2011, and Morton, like many others, thought YouTube primarily consisted of videos of cats playing the piano and make-up tutorials. But after seeing other content posted on the site, Morton decided to give it a shot. Her audience started small, with her videos garnering a handful of views. But in the more than a decade since then, Morton's YouTube channel has grown to more than 1.2 million subscribers. Crucial to the growth of Morton's audience is YouTube's system for recommending content to users, which the company began building in 2008. It relies on a highly complex algorithm to predict what videos will interest viewers and keep

[ad_1] Twitter is threatening legal action over Meta's new social media service, Threads , with an attorney for Twitter describing as a "copycat" app allegedly developed by hiring former employees of the microblogging platform owned by Elon Musk and using the company's trade secrets, according to a letter posted by Semafor.  The letter's author, attorney Alex Spiro of law firm Quinn Emanuel, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Meta declined to comment on the letter, but communications director Andy Stone responded on Threads, writing, "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that's just not a thing." Twitter, which laid off its communications staff after Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of the company last year, didn't respond to an email requesting comment. The threatening letter comes after the debut of Threads on Wednesday, which within

[ad_1] Twitter is threatening legal action over Meta's new social media service, Threads , with an attorney for Twitter describing as a "copycat" app allegedly developed by hiring former employees of the microblogging platform owned by Elon Musk and using the company's trade secrets, according to a letter posted by Semafor.  The letter's author, attorney Alex Spiro of law firm Quinn Emanuel, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Meta declined to comment on the letter, but communications director Andy Stone responded on Threads, writing, "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that's just not a thing." Twitter, which laid off its communications staff after Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of the company last year, didn't respond to an email requesting comment. The threatening letter comes after the debut of Threads on Wednesday, which within

[ad_1] Meta is set to release a rival to Twitter this week, a social media app called Threads it describes as "Instagram's text-based conversation app." The new service is available for pre-order in Apple's App Store, which states it will officially be released on July 6. However, a countdown clock from Meta jumped forward and now states that the app will be available at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on July 5, instead of its previous release date of July 6 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. Threads may have a similar appearance to Twitter, with screenshots of the service showing messages with replies from other users. One screenshot of the app indicates that Instagram users will be able to immediately click to follow the same accounts on Threads, which could help users quickly build large follower bases.  Meta also introduced cheat codes on Instagram to allow people to sign up for a download ahead of time, teasing the release to its bill

[ad_1] LONDON: Facebook lost a legal challenge Tuesday at the European Union's top court over a groundbreaking German antitrust decision that limited the way the company uses data for advertising. The European Court of Justice said competition watchdogs can consider whether companies like Facebook comply with the continent's strict privacy rules, which are normally enforced by national data privacy regulators. The court ruled that antitrust authorities can take into account any violations of data privacy rules as they investigate whether tech giants are abusing their dominance in the market by boxing out competitors. “We are evaluating the court's decision and will have more to say in due course,” Facebook parent Meta said in a statement. The court sided with a 2019 German antitrust ruling that threatened to upend Meta's business model of selling ads targeted to users based on data gleaned from how they spend time on its services. Meta, which also owns Instagram